Defining a "Note" vs. a "Task" in your Contact Manager
Posted on Wed, Feb 02, 2011 @ 12:51 PM
We often get many of the same questions from our subscribers, and we will take these common questions and create knowledgebase articles on them so that other subscribers that might have the same question can easily search for and find this information when they need it. We organize and store all of this information in our support suite that can be accessed when you need it. (24/7) Included is a link to our support center. You can always access this directly while logged in to BigContacts by selecting the "Support" tab.
We just released some new enhancements for "writing a note" and "logging a call" in our contact management software. One of the many enhancements is that we increased the security and integrity of note taking for your contacts. When a note (or a call is logged) is written, we place a date and time stamp on the note or call, and now we ALSO make that note permanent. It can no longer be altered/ edited as this would diminish the integrity of this date and time stamped history item.
We have received a great deal of feedback on this and most subscribers are very happy to see that we are putting measures in place to further secure and protect the quality and integrity of the history they are generating as they work with their clients and prospects.
In the process of rolling out these enhancements, we realized that there may be some confusion on the definitions of and best practices for what constitutes a "Note" and what might be better thought of as a "Task".
A "Note", by definition is "a brief record of something written down to assist the memory or for future reference." At BigContacts, we originally designed the "write a note" function to do just that. This function is designed to record a single item for reference in the future if and when needed.
A "Task", by definition is "a definite piece of work assigned to, falling to, or expected of a person; duty." Tasks usually involve multiple steps and several notes to properly document and ultimately complete.
If you have used the "write a note" function in the past to record multiple entries over time, we would like to suggest that you use the "Assign a Task" function. Why? What can you do with this function that you COULD NOT do with the "Write a Note" function, and why would this be better for you?
The Task function is designed to accommodate multiple entries. You can easily create a task,
add notes over time
and then when you are done adding notes/ activity to this task, you can then save/close it.
When you close the task it now becomes a part of the permanent history and is read only.
What is great about this method is that while the task is still in progress and you still need to add notes to it, it is not buried amongst all the other history items. Instead the task (while still open) is prominently displayed in the "pending tasks" folder...making it very easy to locate and edit as needed.
Give this method a try. We think you find this to be a more effective and efficient method for compiling multiple "notes" that pertain to one subject/ project.
Please feel free to submit a support ticket or join us for a live chat should you have any questions as you work with this new module.
